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The Herschel Space Observatory was an ESA space telescope which flew from 2009 until 2013 and collected a huge archive of imaging and spectroscopy at several far-infrared wavelengths. It studied, amongst other things, many regions of star formation. Detailed analysis of these investigations has allowed astronomers to revise their thinking on how stars and planets form. A new paradigm has emerged, in which magnetic fields, filamentary structures and gravitational attraction combine to produce the mass function of stars that we observe today. The next generation of instruments will now be targeted to test the predictions of this new theory.